Anger over accident black spot

The relatives of motorists killed at an accident black spot demanded to know yesterday why safety measures had not been extended to include the stretch of highway.

They asked the head of Transit NZ Wellington what price had been put on the victims' lives when officials decided not to carry out improvements and were told the figure had been around $2.7 million for each life saved.

And Graham Taylor told the Wellington Coroner's Court that he was still unable to promise to extend the barrier installed on the worst stretch of Centennial Highway north of Wellington in November after three head-on crashes.

He was responding to questions by two of the victims' relatives, Tracy Hurst-Porter and Gaylene Zohs. Mrs Hurst-Porter's mother, Maureen Hill, and three other people returning from a funeral died in a crash just north of Pukerua Bay in August, and Ms Zohs' brother Darryl and the driver of another car died just metres from the same spot last April.

The need to extend the 700-metre "trial" barrier the entire 6 kilometres from Pukerua Bay to Paekakariki has dominated the proceedings at the tribunal.

Video footage displayed at the hearing yesterday showed a four-wheel-drive bouncing harmlessly off the barrier wires after its driver fell asleep, preventing another potentially fatal head-on collision.

It is the only known incident on the stretch since the barrier was installed as a trial.

But Mr Taylor said extending the barrier depended on the board of Transit NZ being able to come up with a "fundable solution" to persuade funding agency Land Transport NZ to pay the estimated $14.6 million cost.

The project was number 23 on a national priority list of 250 roading improvements.

"I think we'd think our family members are priceless," Mrs Hurst-Porter told him. "It's a lot when you multiply it by our family members as four were lost."

After Mr Taylor said accident rates on that two-lane stretch of State Highway 1 were below the national average, Ms Zohs rose to say she disputed that.

"I urge you to treat this piece of road as a priority," she said.

Coroner Garry Evans reserved his decision and indicated his report would take at least five weeks to complete.

- NZPA